Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Writer-in-Residence

Each spring, we host a distinguished writer-in-residence who works with graduate and selected undergraduate students. Louis D. Rubin, Jr. founded Hollins’ renowned creative writing program.

2015 Writer-in-Residence

Rebecca McClanahan has written 10 books. Her most recent, The Tribal Knot, is a multigenerational memoir. Numerous writing programs assign one of her books on writing, Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively. For 15 years she was poet-in-residence for Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools in North Carolina, where she received the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Education.

Recent Writers-In-Residence

2014: Karen Salyer McElmurray M.A. ’89

Her memoir, Surrendered Child: A Birth Mother’s Journey, was an AWP Award Winner for Creative Nonfiction. Her novels are The Motel of the Stars and Strange Birds in the Tree of Heaven.

2013: Karen Osborn ’79

She has written four novels: Patchwork, Between Earth and Sky, The River Road, and Centerville. She received a Notable Book of the Year Award from The New York Times.

2012: Natasha Trethewey M.A. ’91

In June 2012 Trethewey was named U.S. poet laureate for 2012-13 (reappointed for 2013-14) by the Library of Congress. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Lillian Smith Award for her collection Native Guard, Trethewey wrote two previous poetry collections, Bellocq’s Ophelia, and Domestic Work. Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast was published in fall 2010. In January 2012, she was named poet laureate of Mississippi. She is professor of English and the Phillis Wheatley Distinguished Chair in Poetry at Emory University.

Writers-in-Residence Since 1961

Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Writer-in-Residence Program (named in 2000)

2015: Rebecca McClanahan

2014: Karen Salyer McElmurray M.A. ’89

2013: Karen Osborn ’79

2012: Natasha Trethewey M.A. ’91 (Pulitzer Prize, U.S. Poet Laureate)

2011: Carol Moldaw

2010: David Payne

2009: Kelly Cherry

2008: Christine Schutt ’70

2007: Elizabeth Seydel Morgan ’60

2006: James Dodson

2005: Dara Wier

2004: Denise Giardina

2003: LeAnne Howe

2002: Wayne Johnston

2001: Paul Zimmer

Endowed fund established in 1994 to honor Wyndham Robertson ’58

2000: Kelly Cherry

1999: Brendan Galvin

1998: Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey ’60

1997: Kathy Acker

1996: John Engels

1995: Ellen Douglas

Writers-in-Residence

1994: Mary Gaitskill

1993: Carolyn Chute

1992: David Adams Richards

1991: Denise Giardina

1990: Jean Gould

1989: Katie Ketcher Lyle ’59

1988: Alan Cheuse

1987: Mark Smith

1986: Stephen Becker

1985: Richard Bausch

1984: F. T. Prince

1983: Alice McDermott

1982: Mark Smith

1981: George Garrett

1980: Derek Walcott (1992 Nobel Prize in Literature)

1979: William Goyen

1978: Henry Taylor M.A. ’66 (Pulitzer Prize)

1977: Richard Adams

1976: Lee Smith ’67

1975: Sylvia Wilkinson M.A. ’63

1974: Diane Wakoski

1973: Elizabeth Spencer

1972: Angus Wilson (illness prevented his coming)

1971: Kay Boyle

1970: Malcolm Cowley, William Harrison, and Sylvia Wilkinson M.A. ’63

1969: Louise Bogan

1968: Malcolm Cowley and Shelby Foote

1967: Colin Wilson

1966: William Jay Smith

1965: Benedict Kiely

1964: A group of visiting writers including Flannery O’Connor, Robert Penn Warren, and Eudora Welty